How to install and configure samba on centos 6 :
Samba is free software mainly used for file sharing between other platforms ( Windows ) using SMB/CIFS protocol .Default centos 6 installation will not include samba packages , you need install manually .Here we can see how to install and configure samba using yum.
Samba installation :
After installing Centos 6 (Centos 6 installation step by step screenshots ) and configuring network (How to setup network in centos 6)
Step 1 » Update yum repositories and packages by typing the below command
[root@localhost ~]# yum update
Step 2 » Install samba packages along with dependencies using yum
[root@localhost ~]# yum install samba
Samba configuration :
Step 3 » Create a share username and password .
[root@localhost ~]# useradd shareuser -s /sbin/nologin
Now create samba password for username shareuser using smbpasswd command .
[root@localhost ~]# smbpasswd -a shareuser
New SMB password:****
Retype new SMB password:****
Added user shareuser.
Step 4 » Create a folder called share in the root directory .
[root@localhost ~]# mkdir /share
and change the ownership for the share folder
[root@localhost ~]# chown -R shareuser:root /share/
Step 5 » open the file /etc/samba/smb.conf . ( Before editing the file , please copy the file to another location for backup ) . Add the below lines at the bottom of the file .
[share]
comment = Share
path = /share
writable = yes
valid users = shareuser
Step 6 » start samba service
[root@localhost ~]# service smb start
and type this below command to start samba service automatically while booting.
[root@localhost ~]# chkconfig --levels 235 smb on
Samba testing :
Step 7 » You can check your configuration by using testparm command
[root@localhost ~]# testparm
Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
rlimit_max: increasing rlimit_max (1024) to minimum Windows limit (16384)
Processing section "[homes]"
Processing section "[printers]"
Processing section "[share]"
Loaded services file OK.
Server role: ROLE_STANDALONE
Press enter to see a dump of your service definitions
[global]
workgroup = MYGROUP
server string = Samba Server Version %v
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 50
cups options = raw
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
read only = No
browseable = No
[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = Yes
browseable = No
[share]
comment = Share
path = /share
valid users = shareuser
read only = No
You can see your share sections. Here by default home folders of users will be displayed . you can comment the unwanted section using “;” symbol .
For example . you can comment homes section as below and restart the service using “service smb restart”
;[homes]
;comment = Home Directories
;read only = No
;browseable = No
Now you can access share folder on windows machine by typing \samba-server-ip on run prompt . you can see your share folder after entering username and password.
Cheers ..